From the Deputy Principal

From the Deputy Principal

Election of Student Leaders for 2022

The Year 11 students are currently involved in the process of student leadership elections. Congratulations to Georgina Tenny, Head Girl and Eryn Mungur, Deputy Head Girl and the following girls, Mia McGoran, Sophie Poland, Milla Swain and Charlotte Taft who have been elected as Executive members of the student leadership team. The Heads of House, Social Justice Captain and Boarding House Head and Deputy will be added to this team which will officially commence leading the student body R-12 from the beginning of Term 4 this year after a handover ceremony at the end of Term 3.

Subject Selection for Years 10 and 11 students.

Course Conferencing interviews were conducted via Zoom for Year 10 and Year 11 students and their parents for 2022 subject selection. Students make their subject choices online using Edval Choice and then discuss their choices with an assigned staff member. The students will have completed and confirmed their subject selections by the end of the week and the process of timetable construction for 2022 will commence.

Subject Selection for Years 7-9 students

Elective subject choices have been made online using the Edval Choice program. Access to the relevant Curriculum Handbooks is available to parents and students on Loreto Connect. Students in Years 5 and 6 have also used the online process to choose the language they wish to study in 2022.

Student Drop Off and Pick Up

The safety of our students is of paramount importance to us and it is with this in mind that I ask that you role model safe road behaviour in relation to dropping off and picking up your daughter/granddaughter. It is imperative that students and parents/grandparents always cross only at a designated crosswalk so please be mindful of this. This applies to not only the crosswalk on Talbot Grove but also on Portrush Road. Additionally, Talbot Grove is for ‘kiss and drop’ only as it is a restricted parking area at the beginning and end of the school day. Please refrain from holding up the cars behind you to avoid a bank up of traffic on Portrush Road in the afternoons and potentially hazardous situations for traffic using this busy road. At all times, our focus as teachers and parents must be on the safety of the girls rather than on the convenience to us.

Car Speed in School Zones

In the interests of the safety of your daughters, Parents and Caregivers are reminded that vehicle speed is 10 KPH when dropping students in the circular driveway of the Acacias for early morning sport training before 7:30am. When dropping off or picking students up from Talbot Grove the vehicle speed in school zones is no more than 25 KPH, whenever a student is present.

Key Dates

August 15-20: National Science Week

August 16-20: Catholic Schools Music Festival

August 17: Year 10 Netball Knockouts, Year 7-9 Debating

August 19: Year 10 Reflection Day, Year 9 Road Safety

August 20: R-12 School Photos

August 21: ELC Open Morning, 11am

August 22 - 27: Book Week

August 24: Year 10 Immunisations

August 26-28: Junior School Musical

August 27: Write a Book in a Day

August 30 - September 3: Year 11 Flinders Camp

Second-Hand Uniform Shop Opening Hours

The Second-Hand Uniform Shop will be opening on the following dates for the remainder of the year:

August: 12th, 25th & 26th

September: 8th, 9th, 22nd & 23rd

October: 20th & 21st 

November: 10th, 11th, 24th & 25th

R-12 Art Exhibition

Loreto prides itself on the quality and diversity of its Visual Arts programs. Students are provided with exciting opportunities to engage in art practice and connect with learning across curriculum areas. This was most apparent in our 2021 Early Learning Centre to Year 11 Art Exhibition Art Exhibition which has been open for viewing this week. Students created artworks responding to literature, philosophy, science, the environment, artists’ practice, and personal identity.

Art making is an intensely personal activity. It requires an artist to struggle with ideas and concepts, master methods and materials as well as fine tune their technical intelligences to create their work. The ability and drive to explore ideas that challenge both the artist and audience is an essential aspect of art making. 

The artwork exhibited was created in Semester 1. Our Year 12 Art students will exhibit at the completion of their SACE study in November.  

Jacky Hamilton 

Leader of Visual Arts 

ELC 2 to 3 Years

The children exhibited two large, framed fabric works titled SMASH and Extracts from Nature; the result of a multidisciplinary activity. They explored concepts of force and motion, using wooden mallets to smash frozen fruit, extracting natural pigments. Stains from tea bags, coffee and fruits picked in the Loreto garden were added to their fabric artworks. Manipulating the mallets challenged and strengthened the children’s fine motor skills; a preparation for writing.  

ELC Babies

The Gumnut Room’s inquiry was around spatial awareness, engaging children to learn about moving themselves and learning about objects that move. Children had a strong interest in cars. They moved them across the paper, observing the marks made. Painting with cars, making patterns and learning about colour was a fun art and sensory experience for the gumnut children as they learnt about cause and effect. 

ELC Wattle

My world and where do I fit within the world around me? Children learnt through hands on investigation, books, songs, sensory experiences, and science experiments. They learnt facts about planets, and they created their own solar system, mixing colours and exploring textures, creating different patterns and effects on paper.  To conclude they designed a solar system using the planets painted throughout the term and collaged them onto black paper. Stars were added by dipping paint and tapping the brush over the paper. 

Preschool - Pig the Pug

After listening to Pig the Pug and Pig the Grub, the children created a portrait of Pig. They used mixed media and worked to achieve contrast to emphasise Pig. Three dimensional additions of cotton wool balls and googley eyes were added as finishing touches.

Reception - The Wonder of Me - Self Portraits

Children used mirrors to look carefully at themselves and recognise their individual features and their uniqueness. These wonders of me observations provide a special glimpse into who our young learners are. Line drawing applied over colour was used to emphasise details and create contrast. 

Year 1 - Autumn Leaves and Mondrian

Year 1 students started by identifying warm and cool colours, and how colour makes us feel. They focused on the art elements of line, pattern, and colour. The contrast of warm colour against cool colour created visual impact in their autumn leaf paintings. 

In abstract collages, Year 1 students learnt about the art elements of colour, line, shape, and balance by observing the work of Piet Mondrian. Using collage, they created compositions and critiqued each other’s work, evaluating how well their compositions were balanced.    

Year 2: Pinocchio

Year 2 students enjoyed the story of the wooden puppet Pinocchio who dreamt of becoming a real boy. The girls created two artworks, a picture using oil pastels and water colour and a Pinocchio puppet with moving body parts. 

Year 3 - Out of this World

These Artworks are a response to a Science unit which explored the movement and relationship between the Earth and the Sun. Students choose to represent the sun or a planet in their artworks. 

Year 4

In Term 2, many Year 4 girls were Confirmed and made their Frist Communion.  Linked to this, they researched a saint of their choice and created an artwork using watercolour and oil pastels.  

Year 5 - Inquiry Unit on Space

Each student researched a planet and included it in the background of a painting of an astronaut.  

Year 5 - Japanese Children's Day

Both classes designed and created art to celebrate Japanese Children’s Day. Year 5 Gold used authentic Japanese paper and collage techniques to create dolls, with three dimensional details of jewels and toothpicks. Year 5 Blue drew Koi fish, decorated with patterns using oil pastel and watercolour. 

Year 5

Building on a unit about living things on the Murray River, students drew pelicans in the style of Erik Abel, using a bold colour palette, geometric patterns, and botanical profiles. 

Year 6

Students’ Plum Blossom artworks complemented their studies of Asia and the novel Cinderella. The plum blossoms were painted with watercolour.

Year 6

Students personalised their Mother’s Day gifts by creating portraits using desaturated photographs as their source images. Shadow shapes were painted in black, creating strong tonal portraits. 

Year 7

Students applied their knowledge of colour relationships to observation drawing and painting. In creating their compositions, each student assembled and photographed a still life arrangement. They examined the paintings of Adelaide artist Lisa Young and were inspired by her choice of subject matter and use of dramatic lighting. 

Year 8 - Character Strength Self-Portraits

After learning to draw facial features, students extended their thinking and conceptual skills to plan and create a self-portrait that communicated aspects of their identity. Observing symbolism in portraits by Del Kathryn Barton and Deborah Klein built on their knowledge of portraiture, particularly, how the artists include references to identity in a portrait. 

Year 9 - Unit Theme: Earth Matters

Students learnt about the different ways that artists address environmental issues and sustainability. While Covid regulations meant that we were not permitted to visit the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize exhibition at the South Australia Museum, the exhibition website was accessed to initiate discussion on artists’ innovative communication methods. Directed Practical Exercises, referencing Heidi Willis’ contemporary Natural History illustrations and Sandra Dionisi’s painting titled ‘Global Warming’ equipped students with technical and conceptual skills which they applied to planning and creating Major Practical Works. 

Year 10

Exposure to artists’ responses to recording and interpreting 'Shelter' raised awareness of global and local issues associated with ‘Shelter’, an essential requirement to sustain life. Students built on their awareness of how and why artists realise their ideas through different visual representations, practices, processes, and viewpoints. They adapted representations and practices from selected artists and used them to inform their personal aesthetic when producing artworks that are conceptually focused. 

Year 11

Philosopher, Alain de Botton’s ‘The Art of Travel’ provided thought-provoking material for Year 11 Art students.

"The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to. If only we could apply a travelling mindset to our own locals, we might find these places becoming no less interesting than foreign lands."

The students took on the challenge of applying what de Botton describes as a ‘travelling mindset’ to familiar subjects, and ‘to notice what they have already seen’. The work of artists Nathan Taylor and Clarice Beckett provided inspiration for observing everyday subjects and recording them by applying stylistic conventions used by the artists. 

From the Head of Student Enrichment and Engagement

Debating

Round 4 was completed this week for our two Senior teams and Round 3 for our Primary teams.

On Wednesday night, Loreto JS teams competed at St. Peter's Girls. The topic for each of their debates was: That we should prohibit the sale and breeding of designer dogs. The girls put up an excellent and well-researched argument and were given positive feedback from the adjudicator about their manner and method. Congratulations to all of the teams, in particular Teams 1 and 3 for their wins against St Ignatius and PAC. 

Our two Senior B teams both had a win in their Secret Topic debates: ‘That we regret the notion that good intentions are a valid excuse for causing harm’. Both convincingly argued the Affirmative of this topic … a seven-minute speech for each student with just one hour’s preparation time. Round 4 for our Year 7, 8 and 9 teams will be held next Tuesday evening at Seymour College, but with no parents allowed, and debaters must wear masks unless it is their turn to present.

ICAS (International Competitions and Assessments for Schools)

The first of the tests took place today – Digital Technologies. The remainder of the tests are at the following times: 

• Monday 16 August 2.00pm – English
• Monday 23 August 2.00pm – Spelling
• Wednesday 25 August 10.45am – Science
• Monday 30 August 9.00am – Mathematics
• Wednesday 13 October 10.45am – Writing

We have 31 students from Year 2 to year 9 participating in these competitions. In total, 112 tests will be undertaken. Good luck to all involved.

ACER Global Academic Challenge

The following message has been received from the organisers of the ACER Global Challenge:

Given the current COVID-19 situation in Australia and the volatility of state-wide lockdowns, we have had to make the regrettable decision of postponing this year’s Global Academic Challenge. 

In order to give students across Australia the opportunity to participate in this competition, the Challenge will now be moved to Term 1 2022.

 We want to thank you again for registering to take part in the Challenge this year, and we look forward to working with you in 2022.

Tournament of Minds

Teams have begun preparation of their Long-Term Challenge. In summary, their challenges are:

• The ARTS – creating an animation that teaches students about Art History.
• Social Sciences – having a conversation with four people from the past on a common issue that has affected all in some way
• Language Literature – reworking a classic story into a new context

We have three Primary and three Secondary teams undertaking these challenges. We are hopeful of a ‘face-to-face’ presentation at the end of our six weeks, but we will film if we need to. TOM teaches us all to be creative and adaptable!

Mr David Hall

Head of Student Enrichment and Engagement R - 12

From the Sports Administrator

Co-curricular Sports

What a few weeks it has been, we have gone from 5 weeks of no sport to the intensity of finals and Round 2 of our Knockout Netball competitions.

The Semi Finals for our co-curricular sports were played last Saturday, and the Grand Finals take place this Saturday 14th August.  We would like to wish all our teams the best of luck for their final games.  We would also like to congratulate the following teams for finishing in the top two and playing for a premiership this weekend:

• Year 7 Loreto 1
• Year 8 Loreto 1
• Year 9 Loreto 1
• Year 10 Loreto 1
• Year 10 Loreto 3
• Year 11/12 Loreto 2
• Year 11/12 Loreto 5

Grand Final Fixtures

Semi Final Results

On Monday 9th August our Year 7 Knockout Netball team competed in Round 2 of the competition and after three strongly contested matches, one including overtime, our girls came away as winners and will be competing in the State Finals in September. They all played extremely well and should be proud of their achievement.

We have recently had individual students achieve highly in their chosen sport and we would like to congratulate the following girls for their wonderful achievements:

• Congratulations to Anna Zappia who has been selected in the East Adelaide SAPSASA Year 7 girls' Soccer team to play in the SAPSASA State Soccer carnival at West Beach from 25-27 August.  We wish Anna every success when she competes.
• We also congratulate Christine Johnson who has been doing Taekwondo for many years and this year received her second black belt known as Dan or Poom for juniors which is a wonderful achievement, well done Christine.
• Congratulations to Portia Katsaros who has been selected in the East Adelaide SAPSASA Girls' Hockey team to compete in the SAPSASA Hockey Carnival 1-3 September. We wish Portia a wonderful week and all the best for the competition.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at sophie.hage@loreto.sa.edu.au if you have any questions about co-curricular sport.

Sophie Hage

Sports Administrator

From the Libraries & Information Resource Centre

Premier's Reading Challenge

The conclusion of this year’s Premier’s Reading Challenge is fast approaching, with this event finishing on 3 September.  Students in Reception – Year 2 will have the entries completed on their behalf, however, students in Years 3 onwards are responsible for completing their own.  We have been working towards finishing our Reading Records over the course of the year, but if anyone requires extra assistance, the library is here and happy to help support students to complete the challenge.

Book Fair

As part of our Book Week 2021 celebrations, the Junior & Senior schools will be hosting a Book Fair over Weeks 5 & 6, courtesy of Pegi Williams book shop. For the first time, it will be a ‘cash-less’ online sale using the secure Humanitix portal used for our various Loreto events. 

Junior and senior students will have the opportunity to view the featured titles within York & Micklegate library and a catalogue will be available to bring home if needed. To make a purchase, click on the following:

For Junior School Students: Loreto Connect > Junior School > Micklegate Library > Junior Book Fair and follow the prompts.

For Senior School Students: Loreto Connect > Senior School > York Information Resource Centre > and follow the prompts.

Julie Staley

Information Resources Coordinator R-12

From the College Liturgist

R-6 liturgies

Due to Covid restrictions, online liturgies were held in the Junior school for the first two weeks of term. 

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day was the focus of the Week 3 liturgy. Providing an opportunity to highlight the impact that culture, family and community play in the life of every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child, the liturgy spoke of the significant number of children who continue to face ongoing challenges including, poverty, discrimination and trauma in general. The day is celebrated on August 4 each year with the theme this year: Proud in Culture, Strong in Spirit.

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, is the first Australian Saint and her feast day is celebrated on August 8 each year.  Our first face to face liturgy in the hall was led by Year 2 girls who retold the story of Mary MacKillop in scripture, song and art. It was a moving liturgy and the girls read with confidence, sang with great Felicity and demonstrated their colourful art work in a fitting return to Monday morning liturgies.

Induction of Semester Two Leaders.

Following the liturgy, Dr Archard presented the Semester II Prayer and SRC leaders with their badges. The girls received a blessing and are all ready to begin their work in the junior school in earnest! Congratulations to all the new leaders.

Chapel Mass

The first Chapel Mass for Term 3 focused on the work of Mary Ward International. Led by Year 6 students, the Mass was celebrated by Fr Eka Tanaya who spoke to the girls about the importance of the Gospel reading from Matthew, reminding us to love God and to love our neighbour.  Fr Eka reflected that Mary Ward, and the sisters who followed in her work, were motivated by their deep love of God. A natural outflowing of this love was demonstrated in the sisters’ actions and work in schools and communities. This love of neighbour continues today in the work of the Loreto and IBVM sisters in schools globally and through agencies such as Mary Ward International. 

reLat Assessment.

Students in year 4 will sit for the reLat (Religious Education Literacy Assessment Tool) online test in Week 5. Religious Education (RE) is a core Learning Area in all Catholic schools. It is a foundation for all learning and is integrated into the life of the school through prayer, liturgy, and social justice programs. 

Isabelle Roberts

College Liturgist/REC R-6